Government investment and new economic projects always attract critics, opponents and naysayers. But it is difficult to remember a programme that has attracted such strong, lengthy and widespread criticism as the rice pledging scheme.
The government has made a hasty and ill-considered project worse by refusing to admit errors, correct obvious mistakes or even to move against the most corrupt elements. By digging in their heels now, the prime minister and her economic ministers are only setting the stage for a major fall in the future.
If the known problems with the rice buying programme were not enough, they will soon run head-long into a probable world food crisis.
While Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong fiddle with the rice scheme, experts warn of a coming food shortage.
United Nations agencies and most of the major food producers _ Thailand excepted for the moment _ say that droughts and other problems will cause a shortage of food next year.
That means, at a minimum, "another 2008", when the prices of rice and other food shot through the ceiling even in Thailand, which always has a surplus, and sells food to the world. It might seem at first glance that rising prices are exactly what this government needs. The world will pay to help empty the packed rice warehouses, and Thailand might even end up making a tidy profit.
Don't believe this for a moment. In this "best-case scenario" Thailand will be seen worldwide as a food hoarder and profiteer. But the effects at home will be more devastating. Inflation is certain and the government can expect strong demand from the very farmers it helps to raise prices even further.
The fact is that the critics are mostly right. Last year's decision by the incoming Pheu Thai government to try to help the farmers has turned into a partial debacle. Spending has gone far beyond initial estimates.
Already, the government has announced it will add yet another 405 billion baht for rice purchases in the near future. Paying farmers more than the market price for rice simply cannot be sustained. As the economist Herb Stein said, "Something that cannot go on forever, won't."
The government never has tried to help poor farmers, only pander to them, and to the middlemen who still control the rice trade anyway. It has actively resisted attempts to restrict the profiteering rice mills and merchants. Its stubborn refusal to look at agricultural problems make it complicit in a lack of research and development. This last failing will rebound on Thailand, sooner rather than later, as neighbours figure out excellent rice varieties, organic farming and efficient irrigation.
It is true that rice merchants have exploited farmers for decades. It is equally true that doling out money to farmers without any consideration of market value is exploiting taxpayers and their children _ who will be paying for the debts being racked up at impressively record rates.
Revisiting the rice buying scheme will have to happen. It is up to the government to decide whether to tackle the project methodically and efficiently, now, or have to respond in a panic, later.
It is good policy _ not just good politics _ for the government to be concerned about rice farmers and markets. But the flaws in this expensive, non-sustainable rice-buying programme are so great that a complete overhaul should be on the cards.